Two mechanisms of pseudogap formation in Bi-2201: Evidence from the c-axis magnetoresistance

Measurements of the c-axis resistivity and magnetoresistance have been used to investigate the pseudogap (PG) behavior in Bi_{2+z}Sr_{2-x-z}La_xCuO_y (Bi-2201) crystals at various hole densities. While the PG opening temperature T* increases with decreasing hole doping, the magnetic-field sensitivity of the PG is found to have a very different trend: it appears at lower temperatures in more underdoped samples and vanishes in non-superconducting samples. These data suggest that besides the field-insensitive pseudogap emerging at T*, a distinct one is formed above T_c as a precursor to superconductivity.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Europhysics Letters (initially submitted to PRL on 14 June 2000

Crossover from a pseudogap state to a superconducting state

On the basis of our calculation we deduce that the particular electronic structure of cuprate superconductors confines Cooper pairs to be firstly formed in the antinodal region which is far from the Fermi surface, and these pairs are incoherent and result in the pseudogap state. With the change of doping or temperature, some pairs are formed in the nodal region which locates the Fermi surface, and these pairs are coherent and lead to superconductivity. Thus the coexistence of the pseudogap and the superconducting gap is explained when the two kinds of gaps are not all on the Fermi surface. It is also shown that the symmetry of the pseudogap and the superconducting gap are determined by the electronic structure, and non-s wave symmetry gap favors the high-temperature superconductivity. Why the high-temperature superconductivity occurs in the metal region near the Mott metal-insulator transition is also explained.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Electron-boson spectral density of LiFeAs obtained from optical data

We analyze existing optical data in the superconducting state of LiFeAs at $T =$ 4 K, to recover its electron-boson spectral density. A maximum entropy technique is employed to extract the spectral density $I^2\chi(\omega)$ from the optical scattering rate. Care is taken to properly account for elastic impurity scattering which can importantly affect the optics in an $s$-wave superconductor, but does not eliminate the boson structure. We find a robust peak in $I^2\chi(\omega)$ centered about $\Omega_R \cong$ 8.0 meV or 5.3 $k_B T_c$ (with $T_c =$ 17.6 K). Its position in energy agrees well with a similar structure seen in scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). There is also a peak in the inelastic neutron scattering (INS) data at this same energy. This peak is found to persist in the normal state at $T =$ 23 K. There is evidence that the superconducting gap is anisotropic as was also found in low temperature angular resolved photoemission (ARPES) data.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure